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George Romero Biography

George Romero is one of the top names of the modern horror film business, thanks to his 1968 cult classic Night of the Living Dead.

George Romero grew up in New York and attended the Carnegie-Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began his filmmaking career producing industrial films and television commercials.

Night of the Living Dead was his first feature film, a grim and gory black-and-white movie about flesh-eating zombies attacking a small band of people holed up in a Pennsylvania farmhouse. Produced independently for $114,000, it went on to become an international horror hit: The Los Angeles Times reported in 2017 that the film had grossed over $50 million.

Romero eventually directed five sequels to the film: Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead (2009). He also oversaw the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead, but he was not involved in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.

George Romero also wrote and directed many other films for the big screen and television. His other films include Creepshow (1982), Monkey Shines (1988) and The Dark Half (1993, based on the Stephen King novel).

Extra credit

Most sources list George Romero’s birth year as 1940; however, the official site for his movie Diamond Dead, managed by his son, Cameron, listed his birth year as 1939… Another famous offbeat student from Carnegie-Mellon: Andy Warhol.